For Linwood Barclay, humour helps the story go down — Watch Day Two of Canada Reads here
The debates take place March 17-20 on CBC TV, CBC Radio, CBC Listen, CBC Gem and CBC Books
The great Canadian book debate is back for its 24th season! The second round of Canada Reads kicked off March 18, 2025 at 10:05 a.m ET.
Watch Day Two above or find other ways and times to tune in here.
On Day Two of Canada Reads 2025, thriller writer Linwood Barclay discussed the merits of humour in Wayne Johnston's memoir Jennie's Boy.
Jennie's Boy recounts a six-month period in Wayne Johnston's chaotic childhood, much of which was spent as a frail and sickly boy. While too sick to attend school, he spent time with his funny and eccentric grandmother, Lucy, and picked up some important life lessons along the way.
The book deals with many difficult life experiences, like extreme poverty, illness and addiction, but through it all, there are moments of levity that, in Barclay's opinion, propel the story.
"I don't think this book would be fun to read at all without these moments where he sees the irony and the humour in what he went through," said Barclay.
He explained that part of the reason Johnston is able to see this irony is because of the distance he has from the events he's writing about.
"Time plus distance is what allows us to look back at something that's tragic and find something that's funny," he said.
Time plus distance is what allows us to look back at something that's tragic and find something that's funny.- Wayne Johnston
To illustrate, Barclay pointed to some of the moments from Jennie's Boy that really made him laugh.
He recounted a point in the memoir when the family's television was broken and Wayne's father hired the cheapest technician to fix it. Because he was so inexperienced, the repairman didn't fix it correctly — and the TV played the images from upside down. To solve the problem, the Johnstons turned the TV upside down and put a flowerpot on top.
"That's funny now," said Barclay. "I'm sure at the time it was like, 'well, we're pretty poor so this is all we can do.'"
Barclay also pointed to a moment when Lucy compared Wayne's sickly skin colour to evaporated milk.
"That just made me laugh out loud because, first of all, it's brilliantly descriptive, it's funny, and also shows that in the midst of all this poverty and so forth, that Lucy, his grandmother, had such a sense of humour," said Barclay.
"And I think that her sense of humour is one of the things that brought him through this very difficult period."
After pastry chef Saïd M'Dahoma talked about how Dandelion, the book he's championing, humanizes immigrants as "regular people with dreams, struggles and aspirations," actor Michelle Morgan shared how she connected to the novel as the daughter of an immigrant.
In Dandelion, Swee Hua, the mother of an immigrant family from Brunei, walks away from her family and is never heard from again. Upon arriving in Canada, she deals with mental health challenges and longs to return home, yet she's told she must show gratitude for having the opportunity to live there.
Morgan appreciated that the novel shared a perspective on immigration where it's okay to have a hard time adjusting or not want to stay.
"My mother is an immigrant and she experienced depression as well," she said.
What took her out of the novel, however, were "the food metaphors that would come out of nowhere," she said.
She discussed a scene where Lily, Swee Hua's daughter, is watching an argument between her parents and compares her father's feelings to grains of salt spilled on the floor that can't be picked up.
"It felt like I suddenly heard the author's voice instead of being in that scene with Lily," said Morgan.
M'Dahoma argued that including food throughout Dandelion was an intentional and integral part of the story.
"Food is so important," he said. "It's just a point of anchor for immigrants."
In fact, as an immigrant and son of immigrants himself, M'Dahoma's career as a pastry chef was born from him missing the foods of Paris when he moved to Canada.
Living so far from home and working as a neuroscientist at the University of Calgary, he began to miss French pastries, so he started making his own. Through trial and error and by sharing his journey online, he decided to give up his career as a neuroscientist and become a pastry chef full-time.
"Every time you're feeling bad, you're eating something from home. Every time you're feeling happy, you're getting something from home," M'Dahoma said.
"So that's why it might feel like there's too much food [in Dandelion], but that's one of the ways that we communicate with each other."
Missed Day One of Canada Reads 2025? Watch the replay here.
The 2025 contenders are:
- Olympic gold medallist Maggie Mac Neil champions Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
- Podcaster and wellness advocate Shayla Stonechild champions A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer
- Heartland actor Michelle Morgan champions Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
- Thriller writer Linwood Barclay champions Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston
- Pastry chef Saïd M'Dahoma champions Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
Here's how to tune into Canada Reads 2025:
ONLINE: CBC Books will livestream the debates at 10:05 a.m. ET on CBCBooks.ca, YouTube and CBC Gem.
The debates will be available to replay online each day. The livestream on YouTube will be available to watch outside Canada.
If you'd rather listen to the debates online, they will air live on CBC Listen. A replay will be available later each day.
ON RADIO: Canada Reads will air on CBC Radio at 10:05 a.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones.
It will air at 11:05 a.m. in Nunavut, the Maritimes, 1:05 p.m. in Labrador and at 1:35 p.m. in Newfoundland.
The debates will replay at 9 p.m. local time in all time zones, except in Newfoundland, where it will replay at 9:30 p.m.
ON TV: CBC TV will broadcast Canada Reads at 1 p.m. in the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will air at 2 p.m. in the Atlantic time zone and at 2:30 p.m in the Newfoundland time zone.
PODCAST: The episode will be posted each day after the live airing. You can download the episodes on the podcast app of your choice.
The Canada Reads 2025 books touch on difficult topics, which may come up in the debates.
Topics covered may include abuse, alcoholism, racism and more. You can access support and services at the link below.
